Been talking about this for a long time but with the impending Superbowl I really want a new TV for my Living room. My Older 46" Sony Bravia will be getting moved to the Bedroom and I want to replace it with a 60-65 inch Plasma. My reasons for only wanting a Plasma are primarily that our living room presents a lot of "off-center viewing opportunities" and it also gets a fair bit of daylight. Also I watch a fair bit of motor-sports and football so the plasma's seem to o a far Superior job of handling lkots of motion. But mainly just love the pictures I have seen on some of the Better Samsung and Panasonic TV's I last looked at. I am trying to keep it under 2K$.

What should I be looking for/at when comparing these things? Last time I went in (last year) I made the guy throw on Avatar on Blu Ray on a few tv's but this time around I would like to bring along my copy of Baraka to really see what these things are capable of.

Plasma were the hot ticket several years ago. Today, stay far away from plasma. Read some reviews, they are very yesterday. Get a Samsung LED and never look back.Notice plasma were once very expensive, now less costly than LED, with good reason. I did a lot of research before buying mine, and learned to walk right past plasma..In the old days, CRT days, I would only buy Mitsubishi, today in the flat screen world, it's Samsung all the way. I do have one Vizio and it's OK, but for a few more dollars, why not get the best. Get the best view possible of the Hawks hoisting up the trophy..I'm not affiliated with any, just do lots of research before parting with my hard earned dollars..

OLED is a waste of money right now. It won't be in a few years, but now it is.

I still have the Pioneer 50' I bought like 5 years ago and it's still incredible. I guarantee my Kuro is still as good as any current TV out there. So. Good.

'Good' is a complete matter of preference. If you get a name brand you really can't go wrong Plasma or LCD/LED Backlighting. They will both be awesome. In fact I bought my mother a no-name Wal Mart brand 40" last year and she's loved it and it's had no problems (of course she had a big box tv before).

If you're only going to spend $1,000 (which is plenty!!) just buy a LED backlit LCD. I prefer Samsung.

I enjoy ruining threads by making them about personal attacks and then commenting about how personal attacks make the other person's argument invalid.

I heard that Sharp had bought out the Pioneer Plasma Television segment and was making new TV's under the Sharp Elite Brand. Though none of their efforts have approached the Kuro thus far. Talk about doing things right. The Kuro it seems is still the reference all these years after its demise.

I went through the whole LED Back-lit VS Side-lit VS OLED and now everyone is selling their 4K tv's as well, which I think is fruitless at the moment. I am not that much of a videophile as to appreciate the nuance. All of the online reviews I have found still give a major lead to Plasma's for Picture quality. And my in person quicky evaluation supports this. As I said, the layout of my living room/viewing area is sub optimal (TV sits in a corner out of necessity) to say the least and that is one area where Plasma's seem to separate themselves from the LCD tv's. I want to have the same picture quality regardless of where I am sitting, and I cant do that now.

Can't stand LCD, but it is the cheaper option. Panasonic is not going to produce any more Plasma's but before they discontinue in March they built there "swan song" plasma. It's a true reference monitor. I just got one and it is amazing. If you can swing it, it might be worth the investment. I wanted a Plasma that would last me for at least 5 years until OLED becomes something other than an expensive pipe dream.

You don't have to get this exact model and still get the reference monitor quality. The difference with this one is it has 0 air space between the two panes of glass, so there is no diffusion. You get the model down from this one and it's around $2500.

I've got a 60" Panasonic plasma and love it, I bought the extended warrenty with it so even though Panasonic won't be making new ones if anything happens I'm covered and might even end up with an upgrade if it dies within the next few years.

Msfann wrote:I've got a 60" Panasonic plasma and love it, I bought the extended warrenty with it so even though Panasonic won't be making new ones if anything happens I'm covered and might even end up with an upgrade if it dies within the next few years.

A lot of good info here in this thread. All I really want to add is that you're making a purchase that will effect every day of your life(mostly) for the next few/several years. Don't be a bitch and go cheap. Spend some good money on the right TV. It's worth it.

About 8 years ago my (then) 5 year old RCA 35in CRT tv just went blink and died! So the wife and I decided to go out TV shopping with a goal of spending around a grand. Did the usual Costco, Best Buy, Sears run and all 3 had pretty much the same TVs and in every case we gravitated towards the same TV. We wound up spending about $1700 for that Sony 46" Bravia that I still have. It has served us well since. So in that case we had about 70% scope creep. Hoping to not do the same this time, but you never know.

Have an LCD, LED, and a Plasma in the house. Use the LED in the travel trailer but its been in the computer room this year. Up close its the best picture in the house tho its a bit dark compared to the LCD I can see in our bedroom.

Our Plasma is one of the newer ones that doesn't heat the room. and is a great picture. Two of our 3 are Vizio and we like them. Our LCD is a Dynex and it too has a damn nice picture with lots of depth.

We do have Dish that has all network HD so that may be part of it.

Our 27" LED we bought for our travel trailer is spectacular since you're up close to it. Watched BeastMode's 67 yd gallop in a campground in Brookings, Or. on it.

Nothing bad to say about any of them. The LED one gets used a lot as I have it on during games while here moderating games. The 32" LCD in the bedroom is mine and the wife has the 42" Plasma in the basement.

To really put things in perspective. The other reason I want to put the Sony in the bedroom is to replace a 20inch RCA that I bought in 1988!!! The damn thing still works perfectly after all this time. I am convince It is not of this earth! That TV may be older than Russell Wilson!

IMO, all the talk about Plasma vs LCD (LED or otherwise) for most people is moot. We could discuss black levels, color reproduction, refresh rates until our fingers bleed. Most TVs have features and options that a majority of owners will never use. In the end, buy whatever looks good to you.

longsh0t wrote:IMO, all the talk about Plasma vs LCD (LED or otherwise) for most people is moot. We could discuss black levels, color reproduction, refresh rates until our fingers bleed. Most TVs have features and options that a majority of owners will never use. In the end, buy whatever looks good to you.

We used to run in-store data metrics (to determine placement) and this is how people choose a TV they buy (and they are usually 100% happy with it)

#1 - Price#1A - Brand#2 - Brightness of display model#984546954954 - The research they have done.

We literally doubled sales of a model by turning up the brightness and 'sharpness' of the display model (so we always turned the brightness up on the one we made the most).

I enjoy ruining threads by making them about personal attacks and then commenting about how personal attacks make the other person's argument invalid.

longsh0t wrote:IMO, all the talk about Plasma vs LCD (LED or otherwise) for most people is moot. We could discuss black levels, color reproduction, refresh rates until our fingers bleed. Most TVs have features and options that a majority of owners will never use. In the end, buy whatever looks good to you.

We used to run in-store data metrics (to determine placement) and this is how people choose a TV they buy (and they are usually 100% happy with it)

#1 - Price#1A - Brand#2 - Brightness of display model#984546954954 - The research they have done.

We literally doubled sales of a model by turning up the brightness and 'sharpness' of the display model (so we always turned the brightness up on the one we made the most).

Which by the way, is why you NEVER buy a floor model.

Isn't it weird how we perseverate on what jersey we are going to buy for $150 bucks and blow through multi thousand dollar TV purchases? Bright? Check. Purchase. Awesome.

Sharpness doesn't really do much with digital displays, it was more of an analog thing. With digital, it actually adds a lot of noise to the picture.

Most stores turn up the brightness and contrast, mainly due to all the lighting in the store. Most displays have a "Demo" mode, which automatically do this. In the tech industry, it's called "Torch" mode, because it'll burn out a display quicker (or with some plasmas and old CRTs, cause burn-in).

imo, if you can control the lighting in your viewing room, and you want the best viewing angles, go with a front projector.

taz291819 wrote:Sharpness doesn't really do much with digital displays, it was more of an analog thing. With digital, it actually adds a lot of noise to the picture.

Most stores turn up the brightness and contrast, mainly due to all the lighting in the store. Most displays have a "Demo" mode, which automatically do this. In the tech industry, it's called "Torch" mode, because it'll burn out a display quicker (or with some plasmas and old CRTs, cause burn-in).

imo, if you can control the lighting in your viewing room, and you want the best viewing angles, go with a front projector.

Yeah, you can get pretty damn huge with that but you HAVE to control all lighting.

I enjoy ruining threads by making them about personal attacks and then commenting about how personal attacks make the other person's argument invalid.